Vern Tegger shares why it’s important to read the Terms of Service when signing up for a service.
Years ago, while signing up with a new popular video streaming service, I was presented with a document of many pages labeled “Terms and Conditions” that I had to agree to in order to watch shows. I had never seen anything like this before. Since I live in the South Bay, just a few miles from their office, I printed what amounted to 16 pages of single-space papers, placed them in an envelope, and took a short drive over to their local office. I placed the envelope with “really?” written on it in the mail slot. I did want to take advantage of their service, so I did agree to their terms and conditions.
Lengthy terms and conditions, as well as privacy policies, are now ubiquitous for many goods and services we want to use. Many of these can take up to 45 minutes to read, and having a lawyer sitting next to you would be helpful. These are binding, legal contracts and it is always best to read through them carefully before you click “agree” as there can be some things that might surprise hidden in these documents. Here are some examples: To use an assignment service for substitute teaching in a local school district, buried within their terms and conditions you must agree not to use the technology to build a nuclear weapon. Darn!
One popular streaming service realized that their terms of use are so long, that they threw a pretty decent recipe for chocolate cake in the middle of them to break the tedium of having to read through them.
A local chain recently pressured me into signing up for a rewards program. I did not agree to read their voluminous terms and conditions.